Legacy of the Void

        For any and all who were paying attention to Blizzard a few weeks ago may know there was a very big announcement for starcraft 2. Starcraft 2 legacy of the void has finally released a trailer and the new units. In Legacy of the Void players will play as Heirarch Artanis leader of the Golden Armada of the Protoss. Unfortunately not much has been revealed about the campaign of this standalone game/expansion other than this will be the conclusion to this well known trilogy, it is practically the end of days, the Xel'naga are returning, and you will probably have to work with Sarah Kerrigan, but you're the Protoss so this is no shock to you. 

       While everyone loves the story of Starcraft it will have to have some good gameplay especially since this is such an important E-sport. To start off I'd like to talk about the overall changes to the gameplay. Since this is game requires a lot of skill to play professionally as well as a lot of micromanagement the game Devs. have decided to make it have even more skill and micromanagement as well as a lot more harass. personally I'm not  a big fan of these changes, but I'm usually a turtler so that's to be expected. I feel like this change will make the learning curve even greater, but it will also make it a much more exciting E-sport. 

       Like Heart of the Swarm Legacy of the void will be adding and changing units as well as bringing one back from the original starcraft. The Terran's will be given a new bio unit called the Herc that deals short range blast damage and also has a grappling hook to get in close. The Terran's are also getting a unit called the cyclone which is a fast moving unit that can lock onto a target and shoot while moving. The siege tank has been changed so it can be moved by a medivac while in siege mode, the Thor had its "high impact payload" ability replaced with "emergency repair" which will allow it to heal but it can't move or shoot, the banshee can now outrun all mobile detection units and now has a longer range, and the battlecruiser now has the "tactical jump ability which allows it to teleport to any location on the map even if there is no sight. Personally I think these changes are rediculus, I understand encouraging harassment but allowing banshees to move even faster and shoot farther makes them almost uncounterable.
         Now, the zerg units now have the Lurker which may sound familiar because it was a unit from brood war, and is an upgrade for the Hydrolisk, it can't attack unless burrowed, but it can attack in a line if it is. The Ravager is an upgrade for the roach which will give it the ability "corrosive bile" which is a mortar style attack that damages both ground and air units as well as its ability to destroy forcefields. The corrupters corrupt ability has been replaced with caustic spay which is a channeled damage ability, the swarmhost can now spawn locusts while unburrowed but it is now an active ability, and the Nydus-worm can no longer be killed while tunneling. I really like that they are bringing back the lurker and besides the fact that it can destroy forcefields I also like the Ravager, But the new Nydus-worm may be a bit annoying.
        Unfortunately the only new Protoss unit is the Disruptor which has no attack, but has the ability "Purification Nova" which gives a massive speed boost and invulnerability, but after a few seconds a massive AOE blast originating from the disruptor will go off and it will lose all buffs. Unfortunately for the Protoss Units being warped in are now much more vulnerable, but warp prisms can now pick up units from a distance, immortals "hardened shield ability was replaced with "barrier" which will give it a 200 HP shield, the oracles Revelation and envision ability has been merged together and now has a new ability called "stasis Ward" which will put a mine on the ground that will trap any enemy that touches it in stasis for 30 seconds, the Tempests movement speed has been increased but can not only fire on ground units and has the ability called "disintegrate" which will cause 500 damage over 50 seconds on a single unit, and the carrier can now launch all interceptors at a great distance for 60 seconds but all of the interceptors will die. Honestly I don't like the changes to the Protoss and  I feel like a lot of these are nerfs. I also really don't like that in the Protoss expansion  the Protoss got the least new units, the most nerfs, and the other races got a bunch of units to counter the Protoss, such as the ravager, and the new Nydus upgrade. While a lot of these changes just strengthen the other units in general I think the Protoss are getting the short end of the stick here. These are not set in stone though and much of this is subject to change, so we can only hope Blizzard will do the right thing.

 More Info can be found here: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/16654945/legacy-of-the-void-multiplayer-preview-11-8-2014

STARCRAFT

          By Nathan O'Neill

             Starcraft and Starcraft 2 were originally the most popular E sport in south Korea before league of legends. Starcraft is an RTS(real time strategy) that has you play one of 3 races. You can play as the Terran's, a race of U.S southerners who ventured to the koprulu sector(The part of the galaxy that the series takes place in.) and are now ruled by their horrible emperor Arcturus Mengsk. this race use power suit wearing marines as their primary unit and a large amount of tanks and other mechs. The second race and my personal favorite is the Protoss, a  race of blue(and sometimes grey) skinned aliens who are much taller and more psionically powerful race who are very devout following of their religion and the worship of "The Kala". This race mostly use robots and Protoss warriors called zealots as their primary unit. These are only one part of their race though, as there are others known as the Nerazim who are outcasts among the Protoss for not wanting to follow the Kala. The last race are known as the Zerg and they are horrifying. The Zerg are a collection of alien races that have all been assimilated into the have mind and only have one goal  "Find, Consume, and Evolve". The Zerg are headed by a central overmind in the first starcraft and in the second *SPOILER ALERT* they are lead by Sarah kerrigan a former Terran who was assimilated into the zerg for her psionic pottential to command the zerg. The zerg have a large number and assortment of units, but the primary unit is the zergling.

                 Personally I love Starcraft 2 as an E-Sport and as a casual game, but it can be hard for some players to get into Starcraft 2 since there is such a high learning curb and the choice between 3 different races to play as even though you can switch and playing a race never binds you to that race. Visually the game is gorgeous and the story is incredible, but it is an incredibly stressful and difficult game. There are also a number of very cheap tactics such as cannon rushes and proxy bases/ barracks but if you are careful and deny any attempts than you will get many more victories and have a very fun time.

More information about  starcraft 2 can be found here: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/guide/whats-sc2



I'm sorry there isn't a zerg photo, but  Blogger likes to glitch out every time I try to put up a picture and gets worse the more I put.

Nathan O'Neill

Azir- The emperor of the sands

            Since this blog is about E-sports (mostly league of legends and Starcraft 2) it is very important to know the game play. A very important feature of league of legends is the champions because that is who you play as. Wanting to show a little bit of the champions of league of legends I have decided to write a few articals about the newest and my most favorite champions. As the title already says, the first champion I will be talking about will be the newest (as of the time that this was written) champion Azir.

             Azir is a mage who is very much different from most others. Instead of using high damage spells and crowd control to harass and kill his enemy Azir will use soldiers. Using Azirs W "Arise" will allow him to summon an untargetable soldier who can melee enemies and pierce through them to attack multiple enemies. These soldiers can be summoned away from Azir and replaces Azirs basic attack with a soldiers melee using his attack speed as their own. Azir can summon three of these soldiers at a time and they only last for ten seconds before disappearing. His soldiers are also unable to move unless told to by using Azirs Q "Conquering Sands" which will make his soldiers dash to a target location dealing damage and slowing all enemies hit by the moving soldiers. Using Azirs E "Shifting Sands" will make Azir dash to a target soldier, but if he collides with an enemy champion he will stop, knock the enemy in the air and gains a shield. Azirs passive "Will of the Emperor" has both a passive affect and an active affect. The passive will convert a percentage of Azirs cooldown reduction into attack speed, while his active turns a destroyed turret into a "sun-disk that acts as his own turret that slowly dies. Azirs Ultimate is "Emperors Divide", Azir will summon a row of shield wielding soldiers that appear in a line knocking back all enemies they hit. These soldiers cannot move or attack but they act as an impassable wall that enemies cannot to through but allies can move through it gaining a movement speed bonus.

               Overall I personally love Azir and think that he is an amazing Champion. He is a very difficult to master champion, but if you learn how he works he can become very deadly. His abilities mostly focus on soldiers which I think is a very interesting change from the usual mage. The only thing I don't like about Azir is that his attacks with his soldiers are very strange. you can never really tell if you are in range to command your soldiers, and you will often find yourself walking towards your soldiers when you may thinks that you are in range. I don't think it is that big of a deal though and I'm sure that Riot will fix this the  best that they can.

All information used in this artical can be found here: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-reveal/azir-emperor-of-the-sands

           

Nathan O'Neill

New LOL championship Music

             With the League of Legends (also known as LOL or League) Group stages behind us and the finals approaching Riot games has collaborated with the band Imagine Dragons to create a song titled "Warriors" for this special occasion. In an artical by Jason Moth called  "League of Legends Championship gets epic new music video and song composed by Imagine Dragons" Jason talks about how the video is vastly different form all other League music videos. This new music video is the first video that focuses on the players and not on the champions (the in game characters that people play as). Jason went on to talk about how the video communicates how the players feel about being on the stage and having 16 other teams working to keep you from winning $2,000,000.  
              I very much agree with what Jason had to say about this video. Riot has never made a music video on the players of league and it is very interesting to see especially since few ever actually think about the professional players. It was also very interesting to hear that Imagine Dragons had made a song for League and that they are longtime fans of the game. Above all though is that this was a very good song and an even better video that did its job and made many who heard it want to watch the games.


             
Moth, Jason.
           "League of Legends gets epic new music video and song composed by Imagine Dragons"
            Load the game: 18 Sept. 2014 web. 28 Sept. 2014